AGoT - A Hidden Agenda - Drogon Process

Back in January I shared with you my updated versions of Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal. Today I have for you the process and steps that went into making Drogon (the other two dragons will be along next week!). So that we are all on the same page, here is how the final version of Drogon from A Hidden Agenda turned out...

Drogon - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Since I was working on all three dragons at the same time I worked on their initial thumbnails all at the same time. I saw them almost interchangeable at this point. I wanted to do one coiling around in the sky, one flying down in a burning forest, and one back lit flying. While I had a specific dragon in mind for eat situation I could see them changing. While there were some edits, the dragons remained in their original scenes. Here is how those original thumbnails turned out...

Dragon thumbnails

© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Drogon was actually the only one that went through the thumbnail process untouched (more or less). Here is how is finalized annotated thumbnail turned out...

Drogon - Thumbnail
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

The finalized thumbnail was approved, as was my concept for the piece and I was given the go ahead to move forward on the drawing. After a bit of scribbling on paper all done I had myself a dragon drawing...

Drogon - Drawing
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Time to get started on the painting... and for this piece it meant IMMEDIATELY flipping the approved image horizontally and paint it that way. Cause it looks better. To me at least. In 12 easy steps you too can have a Drogon painting... or not. Here is how the painting developed...

Drogon - Process steps
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Looking at the above progression you might not be able to notice how much the image changed along the way. Besides being flipped horizontally there were several key tweaks and edits that needed to happen with this piece to make it work better. A change to the head here, a shift of the wing there. Kill your darlings and make the changes that need to be made. Here is an animated gif that will better show how much and what has changed...

Drogon - Process progression animation
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

This piece was straight forward. I knew what I wanted from the beginning and made that image. It required some finessing along the way, but they all do. Again, here is how the final piece turned out as well as the final production card...

Drogon - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Drogon in handy card form

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com